I am trying to design some elements of another of my game in design and while I do this, I tried to analyze the design procedure I took in order to optimize the process or the future games I design.
I know that game design is an iteration process where each iteration contains new rules, prototyping, risk evaluation and play testing. That is not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the game design process only.
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Step 1- At the beginning, there is the abstract of the game. I made a vague description of how the game would work. I defined various elements like the space, objects and actions, and I set up the goal of the game.
Step 2- The 2nd thing I did is identifying which components I want to use. Dress up the turn order process and determine the rules of each step in the turn order. This is what I call the rule draft.
Everything good so far. Of course, with multiple play testing, the elements defined above will change and evolve. So let's continue to step 3.
Step 3- Design the data of the game. Game contains information and it needs to be defined. For example, if you have a deck of event cards, you need to determine what events are going to be on the card. So you need to list the data to design, define the structure of the data, like in a database, and create the content.
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All the steps above, especially step 2 and 3 are repeated after each iteration. Now here starts the loophole
The loophole I want to talk about is especially true when you start a new game. It is also the reason why making a variant is way much easier than making a new game. This is also the concept of foundations I was talking about way in the past ( if you design a game on some foundation, the design process is easier, better and faster).
Let say step 2 is done. I have a good idea of the actions that the player can do and how the components are going to be used. Now, I must start step 3.
I need to design for example, the special event cards in my deck. I can determine the structure of the data according to the rules determined in step 2.
But it is very hard to define the content because the content influence the rules of the game, but the rules of the game are not solid enough to actually design all the event card data. On the other hand, you need to define the card's data else you cannot test the rules of the game.
So you get in a situation where each side of the design depend on each other. So you can't design any of the side because none of the sides are clearly defined since they each depend on their counterpart to evolve.
Example of situation I want to avoid: I took 1 week to design hero characters which would influence the production system. After the first play test, the production system was wrong and was redesigned from scratch forcing me to drop all the characters I had made.
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So my question is: Do you have any suggestions for getting out of this loop hole?
My solution so far is to make a dumb data design to be able to test the rules of the game. When the rules gets more solid, you can design a selection of data that makes more sense and is more balanced to what you want to achieve.
Various ways I found so far to make dumb data so far:
- make a random selection of stats
- use components from another game that looks close to your game
- Use the void: Use empty or almost empty information on your components.
Any other ideas?
Besides designing dumb data, do you have other solution suggestions?
Ok, for post 2 and 3, I think you misunderstand me.
I am creating a new game from scratch and that is basically the problem, there is nothing.
I want to make a new game. Lets take for example magic the gathering.
Step 1: I design that I want a collectible card game, that will mostly use the cards as components. I have a vague idea of how the game is going to be played.
Step 2: I decide that I want cards and tokens in my game. I determine the turn order procedure and I describe the rules for resolving each step.
Step 3: Design the structure , the type and the content of the cards
Problem:
The cards change the rules of the game. So I can't design the cards because I don't know if the rules are actually working because I have not tested them yet.
But I cannot test the rules because I do not have any cards to test with.
that is the loop hole, one depends on each other.
Solution:
Random: Make random cards, add the few effects that comes to my mind, use random stat distribution for the monsters.
Scavenge: Use components from another game. Here it is impossible because when MTG was created, there was no other CCG yet since it was the first CCG. So you can't scavenge components from another game.
Almost nothing: Design cards with only casting cost so that you could test a portion of the game.
I hope I made my self more clear